Skaldiddog's "Progress"

[SkaldidDog]

Crazy is contagious. Don is madly in love with his and even gave away his boss claws. He's a Clappy Convert. We've been bouncing ideas back and forth for a completely hand-treaded tire but given the amount of work it'll take neither one of us has gone that route.

[RCHuffer]

thanks Joel, Don and 4xFord -- I'm working on a jig for my Dad's lathe to try this out. How did you do at the Regionals?

[vodka child]

Liked the idea of this but didn't have access to a lathe at home so figured i'd try something a bit 'garden shed engineering' to get a similar method going.

1 Axial stub shaft, a 12mm hex and a drill









Sorry not trying to thread jack, will delete the post if y'all think it is, figured i'd share another way to do something similar if you don't own a lathe Will drop the drill into a vice and then sand away

Cheers
Darren

[SkaldidDog]

Good idea Darren. I think everyone but me uses the drill method. Some guys pair it with sanding pads on dremmels, belt sanders or orbital sanders. I've watched guys haul a cinderblock to a comp and sit there on the bed of their truck sanding away sidewalls on it until the drill batteries died. I started out with a vice, files, hack saw and drill and greatly appreciate what can be done with basic tools.

[Del Monte]

Originally Posted by RCHuffer

...How did you do at the Regionals?

I would say that he did alright

[Frankenwheely]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

I would say that he did alright

I might have to change my quote to "Joelow is my hero."

[SkaldidDog]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

I would say that he did alright

Did alright indeed. No better time for my second win...ever. Looking forward to WCC and Vegas. Thanks Team Debead for judging.

[SkaldidDog]

Finally got some time to take and post some pics. Made a few sets of bushings since I wore out my first set. The top ones wear out twice as fast as the bottom ones. Finally finished the second phase of my beadlock compression jig. It sure is fun complicating the heck out of putting a tire on a wheel. The large jig compresses the tire nicely so there's no struggling at all to load the outer stock beadlock. The smaller jig (posted earlier) is used in combination with the larger one to install my custom PITA inner beadlocks. No more headaches. I've included a shot of the cool gnurled gnobs. Also made a third set of wheels with my inner beadlocks. One set is Rovers, one is my really Clappy Donas and the third is a brand new set of not-so-Clappy Donas ready to be broken in. All three sets I've lathed the sidewalls. If you can't tell, I like lathed sidewalls.

J

[rob_b]

Looks good but you should just make your own wheels.

[DonCrawla]

Hey that's a lazy mans tool!

[DonCrawla]

Originally Posted by DonCrawla

Hey that's a lazy mans tool!

well i take that back ... you weren't lazy making it

[SkaldidDog]

You know me Don...lazy psalmbitch always doing stuff the easy way.

[SkaldidDog]

I had some ghosts in Futaba 4PK TX and two 614FF RXs so I sent them in Tuesday AM. They got the package Wed AM and by the PM they had done the work and accepted payment. One day turnaround...now that's service. I'm betting the trip back to SD will take twice as long as the trip out and repairs combined. I'm notoriously hard on/unlucky with electronics so I can't place all of the blame on Futaba. I'm just stoked they knocked it out quickly. I guess a week without my rig will force me to catch up my chores and consume a lot of beer over the long weekend.

Go Futaba Ghostbusters!

[SkaldidDog]

I hate debugging a bad component so I figured I'd make everything modular using DMP's. I wired the ESCs together as many have done and used 20ga with DMP's all over. This is my backup set of ESCs that I'll put on a spare skid plate once I make it. Then I can replace the guts with a swap of the skid plate. To make BEC reprogramming easier I made and adapter that mates with the CLink. Also made an adapter for my servos so when I drop them off at Hitech for their upmteenth rebuild, they can power them up and test them normal like. I had to make an adapter to charge my batteries because all of my big MA packs use TRX connectors. It's nice to have my radio back and I'm looking forward to hitting the rocks soon.

Thanks for watching.

[SkaldidDog]

Gates+Boss Claw pins=Gate Claws.

It's amazing what these gates will cling to.

Some may have seen this in the Techniques section already but I figured I'd associate it with my build.

[House]

LOL
I thought that was what your new avatar was, but wasn't quite sure...
Cool idea!

[Del Monte]

I bet those gates would hook up even better if you siped the lugs

I like the modular idea for the electronics. I've been thinking about doing the same thing before Vegas.

[SkaldidDog]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

I bet those gates would hook up even better if you siped the lugs

Agreed. I'll also have to test out different compounds to see which one will hold the gnarliest line. They'll likely work best after they've been broken in or maybe I'll just toss them on the lathe to soften the side lugs.

[SkaldidDog]

Note to self: Make sure your rig is square before an important comp.

Sunday in Vegas the kind gentleman with the tech stick looked at me with uncertainty and said "one side's longer than the other...you sure you want to run it this way?". I said "uh, sure". Monday night I measured my rig and sure enough one side was 0.1" shorter than the other due to a compressed/stripped rod end. It's all fixed now but next time I'll take good advice and say "uh...I'll be right back".

Updates: I've dumped the Losi shell in favor of the Parma unit because it's just plain better. I've also given up (for the time being) on Sedona's. I'm back in Rover mode. But, as all know, an unmodified set of Sedonas took the cake at the hands of a skillful driver. When I get my mill cross slide table back together (cheap chinese bearing failed) I'll get on with some cool parts/mods. Pics when I'm done.

J

[rob_b]

Congrats on your rookie season and your finish at nationals and I'm looking forward to see what you come up with next.